How to write the perfect e-mail subject line for newslet­ters

Newslet­ter marketing offers a rel­a­tive­ly simple way to address a large group of customers in a targeted manner, to make them aware of your web project. Often, however, little effort is invested into the first thing that catches the recipient’s eye: the newslet­ter subject line. If you make the subject line appealing and original, customers will be more likely to open the newslet­ter. Subject lines that are too cryptic or gimmicky could mean your newslet­ter is simply deleted and never read.

The subject line of your newslet­ter is the first thing that the reader will see in their inbox. However, is it possible to get customers in­ter­est­ed in your own company, product, or offer just by sending pro­mo­tion­al e-mails? The key to this lies in a subject line that is well thought-out and ap­peal­ing­ly designed. Apart from the ap­pro­pri­ate optical layout, there are four essential elements:

• Good content
• Correct ad­dress­ing
• Clear design
• Ap­pro­pri­ate length

Since the subject line is the first thing that a customer sees from your company, and ul­ti­mate­ly what makes them decide whether to read or ignore it, you need to make sure that it doesn’t contain any errors. If the content, ad­dress­ing, pre­sen­ta­tion, and length of the newslet­ter subject line are as accurate as possible, as well as clear and useful, you increase the chance of more con­ver­sions.

You won’t be suc­cess­ful if you don’t con­stant­ly optimize your newslet­ters, es­pe­cial­ly their subject lines. There are some ad­just­ments that writers can make, so here’s how to make the subject line reader-friendly and mean­ing­ful:

The subject line of each newslet­ter has the dis­ad­van­tage in that it offers very little space for mean­ing­ful content. In the subject field, there’s enough room about for 30 to 70 char­ac­ters, depending on whether it is viewed on a desktop or mobile device. Since the text will be cut off if it’s any longer, it is advisable to not exceed the maximum length of 30 to 50 char­ac­ters, to make sure the whole subject line can be read re­gard­less of the device it’s viewed on. Some e-mail clients even display the first few lines of the newslet­ter (around 80 char­ac­ters) as a preview ('pre­head­er'). In any case, you should put the most important in­for­ma­tion and keywords at the beginning of the subject line so that they are seen first.

With the right mix of in­for­ma­tion, en­ter­tain­ment, and ad­ver­tis­ing, you can make your newslet­ter stand out from the com­pe­ti­tion and awaken interest in your product or service. This should also be reflected in your newslet­ter’s subject line. So be calm, creative, and make it obvious what the newslet­ter is about. If possible, adapt the subject line to the style of your newslet­ter and get potential customers in­ter­est­ed in your product or service.

The subject line of your newslet­ter should clarify what the content is about. The user wants to know whether it is worth opening the e-mail instead of sending it straight to the recycle bin. If the subject line is in­com­pre­hen­si­ble or promises content that does not appear in the e-mail, you will quickly lose a potential customer. An error-free, compact, and mean­ing­ful subject line is more likely to win people over. With concise facts and important in­for­ma­tion e.g. special deals for a limited time or discounts, you also keep the reader’s interest.

You can use Unicode® char­ac­ters or emojis to improve the structure of your web offer and break it up a bit. These can help generate and maintain attention, but also come with risks: only use these special char­ac­ters when they add value to your project, otherwise they come across as spam, and aren’t displayed correctly by all e-mail clients. Therefore, you have to consider whether it makes sense to use them in your newslet­ter.

Now that you have a good un­der­stand­ing of what belongs in a newslet­ter subject line, you will know why the following should never be included:

Nothing lands in the recycling bin faster than a newslet­ter with an unin­spir­ing subject. If you want to catch the reader’s attention, you need to make the newslet­ter as in­ter­est­ing as possible and know which topics will win your target group over. Mono­syl­lab­ic or generic subject lines won’t impress.

Cre­ativ­i­ty and orig­i­nal­i­ty are welcome in the newslet­ter subject line. However, make sure you don’t go overboard or use language that’s too com­pli­cat­ed. Using too many char­ac­ters, insider terms, ab­bre­vi­a­tions, or abstract ex­pres­sions aren’t rec­om­mend­ed, since the customer might not be able to work out what your newslet­ter is about. More details can be included in the text body if need be. Incorrect spelling, missing words, and false in­for­ma­tion are also taboo.

You should pay close attention to your choice of words in the subject line. Certain symbols aren’t displayed correctly by some clients or are directly clas­si­fied as 'junk mail'. If you think you’re one step ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion by using crazy slogans, modern spam filters are designed to detect certain word com­bi­na­tions and often remove them before the customer has had a chance to see them. You will notice this due to the low opening rate. Typical spam char­ac­ter­is­tics include the excessive use of intrusive phrases, as well as uppercase letters, ex­cla­ma­tion marks, spaces, symbols, and com­mer­cial terms.

You shouldn’t write the sender, recipient, or company name twice. It’s not necessary since they are usually included in the header. In addition, repeating words means you have less character space.

Your e-mails are designed to help you increase your reach and revenue. KPIs (Key Per­for­mance In­di­ca­tors) reveal the success of a newslet­ter or e-mail campaign. The main KPIs in e-mail marketing are click-through rates and opening rates. The aim of your e-mail strategy should be to persuade customers to open the newslet­ters, to impress readers with content, and to create the basis for more con­ver­sions.

To achieve this goal, it is important to con­tin­u­al­ly optimize the content and design of your newslet­ter’s subject line and to keep central points in mind. As far as the ideal subject line is concerned, here is a summary of the most important points. Subject lines should:

• Give the most important in­for­ma­tion in a direct way
• Make it clear what the added value and benefits of your offer are
• Be the first port of call to make readers in­ter­est­ed in your offer, in­for­ma­tion, or products
• Be straight­for­ward, clear, and as precise as possible for each inbox 
• Not contain dubious wording

There’s no one-size-fits-all method for the perfect newslet­ter subject line, since every product, every offer, and every target group, is different. In principle, however: Make your newslet­ter as appealing, com­pre­hen­si­ble, and original as possible. Don’t be dis­cour­aged when things go wrong, since even newslet­ters need to be con­stant­ly optimized. If you’re creative, provide accurate in­for­ma­tion, and know a lot about your own offer, you can stand out from the crowd and gain the interest of potential customers.